Poppy made a protesting sound. “You don’t know. I’m tougher than I look.”
“No, you’re not.” I was almost sad to have to break the news to her, but it was necessary. “The only reason you haven’t been robbed, raped and shot up with the drug du jour this week is because we happened to see you. We’re protecting you, but that can’t last forever.”
“But ... .” Poppy worked her jaw. “What are you trying to say?”
“You need to go.” I was in it now. There was no holding back. “We can’t watch you twenty-four hours a day. We’re a tight-knit group, but we fend for ourselves most of the time. You can’t contribute, and that makes you dead weight.”
“So, all of this is an elaborate way to kick me out of the group?” Poppy was incensed. “And to think I thought you were a good person.”
“I’m not a good person.” I’d long since resigned myself to that truth. “You can’t survive this life as a good person. I’m not sure what happened to you at home, but I have an idea ... and it’s not a good enough reason to run.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Poppy snapped. “My life at home was terrible.”
And here’s where the truth would finally come out. I was more than just a homeless teenager on the street. I could do things, and that included seeing inside her head. I didn’t have a name for what I could do, but on an instinctual level I recognized I was powerful. That was one of the reasons I’d managed to survive as long as I had.
“Your mother grounded you when she caught you sneaking around with the Hutchinson boy again,” I offered in a low voice, watching as dumbfounded disbelief washed over her face. “You’d been warned about seeing him four times. Your mother isn’t trying to be a hardass. She knows what the boy represents. He’s trouble, the sort to derail the future the two of you so meticulously planned.
“You’ve already been accepted to Michigan State University,” I continued. “You have opportunities the rest of us can only dream of, but you left because you were feeling petulant. You think your mother is trying to keep you from your true love, but she understands the real problem.”
Poppy defiantly jutted out her lower lip and folded her arms across her chest. “And what’s the real problem?”
“She doesn’t want you to throw your life away on a loser who will knock you up and take off ... like she did.”
Poppy went slack-jawed. “I ... you ... that’s not true.” She adamantly shook her head. “My father was a soldier. He died serving overseas.”
I knew better. “Your mother told you that because she didn’t want you to know the truth. You found out, though. That’s what you’re really angry about. You know that your father played in a band and your mother lost her head when she was twenty, had sex with him, and then watched in horror as he walked away.
“That father, by the way, is here in the city,” I continued. “If you want to see him, I can arrange it. He drinks himself to oblivion every night. His liver is shot and he won’t live another eight months without a transplant. That transplant will never come because he has to quit drinking to qualify ... and he prefers the booze.
“He still sleeps with a different woman every night, but now they’re much older and far less attractive ... at least in his mind. He doesn’t think about your mother. He doesn’t think about you. He likely has more than one kid running around the state wondering about him. He doesn’t care.”
Tears sprang to Poppy’s eyes. “How can you say such horrible things? How can you possibly know these things?”
“What I’m telling you isn’t the important thing. You have one shot at fixing your life, and this isn’t it. You didn’t come down here because you were running from abuse or being threatened. You came down here because you were trying to punish your mother.”
Poppy frowned. “She lied to me.”
“She tried to protect you.” I was firm. “If you stay here, you’ll be used up by the end of the month. There aren’t any proms on the street. There aren’t any lettermen jackets. This is not the life you want. It’s not an adventure.”
“But—”
“No.” I took a deliberate step forward and pressed my hands to either side of her head, pouring my magic into her so she had no choice but to see the horrors of the world she’d opted to join. It took only seconds, but she was a weeping mess by the time I finished.
“Go home,” I hissed. “You’ll die here. Go home.”
“I ... .” Tears streamed down Poppy’s cheeks.
“Go home,” I repeated, my voice cold. “You still have a chance. Don’t let what I showed you come to fruition.”
Poppy stared at me for a long beat and then took off in the direction of the bridge. I caught a brief glimpse of her intentions and knew she was heading directly for the bus depot. She would not stop in the park long enough to say goodbye to everyone. She would not wish the others well. She would hop on the bus, huddle in her seat until she reached her small town, and relate the horrors of the past few days to her mother, who would then proceed to croon and cuddle her. She would be forgiven, return to her life, and hopefully understand just how lucky she was.
It was what was best for her.
“That was impressive,” a gravelly voice said from behind me, causing me to snap my head in the direction of a familiar face. His jaw was buried under about three days of facial hair, but I’d recognize his strong features anywhere.
“Shadow.” I nodded in greeting. He was a biker — which would be a strike against him under normal circumstances — and also a friend. “I haven’t seen you around for a bit.”
“We were doing a run to Kentucky,” he replied, moving closer to me, his eyes searching. “What did you do to her?”
The question caught me off guard. “What do you mean?”
“You did something to her,” he pressed. “Whatever it was, you scared the crap out of her. She’s probably halfway to the bus depot.”
“That’s where she belongs.”
His gaze was contemplative as he studied me. “And where do you belong?”
I shrugged, noncommittal. “That’s still up for debate.” I rolled my neck as I regarded him. “You look tired.”
“I could say the same about you. What are you doing on the island? I didn’t think you came out here anymore.”
“I was going to ask you the same.”
Now it was Shadow’s turn to be evasive. “I had a business meeting.”
A business meeting was code for drug deal. I knew better than to press him. “I wanted her to see beauty before I explained about the ugliness,” I explained. I saw no reason to lie. He knew me well enough to recognize what I’d done. “She didn’t belong out here.”
“Definitely not. You could tell that much by looking at her.” His expression was at first difficult to read, but then he smiled. “You did what was right by her. I wish you could do the same for yourself, but ... you have a really hard head.”
I flashed a smile. “We have that in common.”